"for the happy, the sad, I don't want to be, another page in your diary"

Tuesday, 19 July 2016

Team Photo

I take delivery of 24 bags of dog food today for the dog show. The
poor car. L again hints at needing a camper van.

It appears the new body idea is spreading, Daughter is
having a new one because her house guest has just gone and L’s sister is having
one because her business has just been sold. So that'll be quite a team photo.

L says she’ll be putting duct tape over her mouth while I’m
out tonight to quell any urges she might get. If they’re all doing that, that would
be quite a team photo as well.

I leave her slobbing out in the garden, well, slobbing as
much as you can while throwing balls and head to Rock City.

The talk among my generation for the last few years has been
how to mark one’s 50th year on the planet. Tanya Donelly seems to
have met this dilemma head on and aced us all by reforming the band that was her
finest moment and hauling them over to the UK for a tour. It’s a tad more
impressive than my own plans.

A founding member of both the Throwing Muses and the
Breeders, Donelly left to start her own band Belly back in 1991. Their début
album ‘Star’ was a huge success, its follow-up ‘King’ less so. Although, as is
often the case, ‘King’ is perhaps the better, more mature record. Nonetheless
that was it for the band and they split up in 1996.

I'm pretty sure this is Belly’s first visit to Rock City.
It’s certainly not Tanya’s first but as for the band their last appearance in
Nottingham was at Trent Students' Union in 1995. So 21 years on, Belly finally make their
Rock City début where it’s cosily busy tonight but far from full and with the
balcony closed.

The air-con is on, so let's get started. Although, when
exactly did Rock City get air-con? The days when they used to simple carry
people out and lay them out in the car park until they came round are clearly
gone. That was before Health and Safety obviously.

There is no support band and the band play two sets with a
promise to play practically everything from their two albums. They don't quite
manage that but give it a good go. Even débuting two, as yet untitled, new
tracks one each either side of a ‘power nap’, as bassist Gail Greenwood calls
their mid-set break.

Greenwood
is the lively, energetic one, a windmill of
whirling hair, limbs and bass strings. The polar opposite of the calm,
courteous
efficiency of Donelly. Efficient that is until she forgets to sing into
the microphone which she does on several occasions. It is Greenwood who
suggests the crowd can name the new songs
and if that’s the case then one will probably appear as ‘Grade A
W***king’ (you
had to be there).

The Gorman brothers, Chris on drums and Tom on guitar
complete the line-up and it is clear that the four of them have re-formed for
pleasure, theirs as well as ours as they rattle through all the old favourites
from the opening excellence of Puberty (from ‘King’) to the gorgeous closing
Thief (from the Tank Girl soundtrack!).

In between the highlights are many but the livelier crowd
pleasing numbers such as ‘Dusted’, ‘Seal My Fate’, ‘Feed the Tree’, ‘Angel’ etc
are probably trumped by a total enchanting ‘Full Moon, Empty Heart’ and an
equally bewitching ‘Spaceman’.

They return to play one more, ‘Stay’ (from 'Star') which is
perhaps a statement of intent and with new songs being written it looks like
they may be around for a bit longer this time.